The Heroes of the Gem

An epic tolkienesque campaign.

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.

The First Adventure

The party begins in the Tirisfal Glades when their masters tell them that it is nearing the time when they must take the road and become full-fledged adventurers. As their final test, they must go to Tirisfal Keep and find an artifact of the old king.

The party consists of a Human Monk named Solomon, a Human Ranger called Alain, an Elf Druid named Aadin, and a Whisper Gnome Rogue named Kaeranna.

The Keep has been abandoned for over 100 years and is in decay. After a four hour walk to the Keep, they come to the wall and search for a weak spot. They find it on the west side, and manage to break away branches and vines that have grown up into the wall.

The party fights off a few kobolds and then enters the chapel, where they find two more kobolds, about to sacrifice a man. On the altar is the symbol of Zues, whom the old king became infatuated with. When the party rescues him, they realize that he is from the grove as well, he is a Human Fighter named Cole. He gives his thanks and after arming himself, joins their party.

The party then explores the rest of the outside of the Keep, saving a pony in the Stable from several kobolds that are about to kill and eat it, and raiding the armory. They trap the kobolds in the armory, but they break out using a portable ram and battle ensues, with Alain being pierced through his shoulder by a spear. From each group of Kobolds, the party finds a hexagonal box that opens up and anything that is put in it gives off six seconds of light and act as keys to the Keep proper. Aadin heals him and they decide to return to the Grove before dark, as Aadin has obligations on the morrow.

The next day, Aadin is unable to join the party, as he has obligations as a Druid. In his stead, an Elf Mage called Gideon joins the party. He has been sent by the Brotherhood of the Black Rose to assist them in any way he can.

The party is supplied with horses this time, and on the journey to the keep, Gideon holds back and speaks to Kaeranna.

The party comes to the Keep, and it is defended more heavily than before. In the Chapel, there is an offering to Kurtelmak. After battling their way to the fortress, they open up the doors and explore the complex. The party eventually finds their way to a sarcophogus and open it, freeing the spirit of an advisor to the old king.

He disables the traps of the complex and forces many of the kobold guards out of their rooms. The party battles their way through, eventually coming to the wine cellar, where the sarcophogus of the king is.

They fight against two bugbears, one of which gets enlarged, two kobold knights, and a kobold shaman, who bears the mark of Amphortas of the Black Fang, a red hand imprinted on his forehead.

When the sarcophogus is opened, they see an ancient book held in the king’s hands, which they take.

Upon their return to the Tirisfal Glades, Brand, their teacher is elated, and tells them that they should go to the Merchant Town of Isca, to find what information they can of the Black Fang.

Five weeks before the Clearing of Tirisfal by the party that set out from Tirisfal Glades, the Sorcerer Supreme was slain by his apprentice after telling him that he will not inherit the mantle. His apprentice had found the legendary Tablet of Amondas, and used its power to become a powerful outsider, capable of defeating the most powerful spellcaster in the world. When his life was ended, there was a shift in the balance between good and evil, and there was an earthquake that shook the world.

The party begins on the road to Isca working as gaurds for a merchant caravan. As they were getting ready to leave, Gideon took his leave and took out a scoll and teleported away.

On the first night of their journey, a gaurd from another part of the caravan joined them. His name was Cavan and he was an old, grizzled warrior, veteran of a hundred battles. They were attacked just before dawn by bandits from the Black Knives.

The battle was joined by all the gaurds, and after many died, the battle ended. The party took two of the bandits captive. One wore a wedding band and told the party that he was forced to join the Black Knives after they slew his family, leaving only an infant son for him to care for.

On the afternoon of their last day of travel, the party encountered a pair of gnolls fighting for the Black Knives and quickly dispatched them. When the caravan enters Isca, the party is paid for their services and Cavan takes the bandits to the authorities.

The party enters Isca, and it is a seedy place, filled with merchants, thieves and ladies of ill repute. They go to the Rusty Wench Inn and each get rooms.

The next day, the party splits up and seeks out information on the Black Knives and the Black Fang. Alain goes off to find what information he can as far as the details of the recent attacks, finding out that they come from everywhere and no where.

Kaeranna goes to the Guild District to speak to the top merchant of Isca, a Mercane Merchant by the name of Alice, who has his hands in every pocket of Isca, running a personal crime syndicate. She is unable to speak to him until the next day however.

As Alain wanders back to the Inn, he is met by Cavan who gives him a book that one of the bandits gave to him. He flips through the pages and can’t read it since it is written in a language foreign to him.

The next day the party has a meeting with Alice who tells them that there is a man at the Stingy Dragon who may know more about the Black Fang and Black Knives. He then offers them a permit to do caravan work, at a high price.

The party goes to the Dingy Dragon and is met by a man named Raven, who tells them of their great destiny and the events that have led up to the the coming darkness.

The party leaves Isca the next day at midnight with an unlicensed caravan and are stopped on the road highwaymen, whom the party dispatches and then buries.